August 14, 2010

Visit to India........

T 3 Indira Gandhi Airport New Delhi

All's well that ends well, and so it was with my visit to India. The much talked about Terminal 3 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport lived up to its reputation. The road access was well marked and easy, the check in was professional and the waiting lounges were comfortable and well kept, as were the bathrooms. I took off from New Delhi very impressed with the new terminal and the staff managing it.My trip to India was a bag of mixed emotions, but mostly positive ones. India and Indians have a way of growing on you, and it's a growing that completely out-shadows all the dysfunction, discomfort, and disparities that encompass New Delhi. In fact, New Delhi often reminded me of a panorama in fractal geometry, especially when negotiating the seemingly unruly traffic, or facing 'jhuggis' alongside the high rise 'towers' and 'malls'. The dichotomy and the disparity is all so well enmeshed in the mainstream that the overall picture exudes a harmony; truly a baffling phenomenon. The plethora of negatives that I had collected in a matter of a few weeks: the disregard for traffic rules and public hygiene, the flouting of human rights and apathy toward the planet, the suffocating lack of space and clean air, all of these ceased to matter by the end of my trip! I believe this equanimity I felt was not unique to me; most visitors leave India feeling this way because India happens to you, as it did to me!

8 comments:

dear Id, i've been enjoying very much your posts on India, my mother's long dream is to travel there, me too! but I know it will take me longer to get there than her... she's a traveleand i have forwarded your posts, when her time 'comes' i might ask for your e-mail to ask further

the comparison you did between New Delhi and fractal geometry made me think of my city of 30 years, Mexico City, it is very much like that there, on the same subway car ridding a person who doesn't speak Spanish but a native language and is not wearing shoes, next to a high-brow Mexican executive with suit and tie... living there was hard and hectic but so enriching!! as i am sure most big cities are, just like New Delhi, looking forward to be there one day, specially after reading your blog! great photos too!

I was waiting for you to finish your trip and then comment--didn't want to taint your experience of the country with my opinions :)

But I guess this post sums it up--at many levels, India is just a bundle of contradictions (can't be helped, when we are a people who are so vastly different from one another). We are also a country that is growing, and still trying to come to terms with the world, not just around but also inside us. So you will see that your experience from one city to the next, can be quite different.

I'm glad that you got to see bits of both the good and the ugly parts of India. Hopefully, you also saw something that made you want to come back again, and look at it some more :)

Hi Id . Read your comments on your india visit. Honestly, I was left wondering if this is the same person writing . No offense , but the write up was so detached , an outsiders view , of how things are out here . I guess its to be expected, and yet , in minds of people who have known you a long time back, u have never ceased to be just the same "right here " person.

Every place has its own set of contradictions and miracles, none more so than a Third World city undergoing rapid transition.Progress, as the west defines it, has seeped in from the back door ,through fattening paychecks offered to the Middle income people in cities, for the drudgery of the back end BPO jobs that they do , albiet at a fraction of the cost it would take for the MNCs to employ a similar person in the US.Yet , there is a cost the society will have to bear for all this ....

The new yuppies of this "progressive" India are trying to scrub of the last remains of an ancient complex culture from their being ...while the non progressive majority regress further and further into invisibility.

I believe the time is right for a Change , a radical change , it only needs a trigger. And when it comes , most people like me, sitting in airconditioning with a laptop , would have to answer why we covered our noses and turned our heads away from the rot , and became so blind and detached , so busy trying to buy fresh flowers for our homes.

I think this little social commentary is a little out of context here , but its true nevertheless.Hope its not bad advert for the yankee tourist..

Anon,I'm sorry if the post was offensive or hurtful in any way; but like you say, it was an objective/outsider's perspective on India. " Every place has its own set of contradictions and miracles, none more so than a Third World city undergoing rapid transition"...as a 'right here' person (:) ) I am in complete agreement with you here but I am not sure I agree with you on "there is a cost the society will have to bear for all this" because the cost far outnumbers the benefits. Your comment made me rethink both the content and the language of my post; thanks : )...India gets you carried away...both in a good way and a bad, so thanks for pulling the reins!